Well, being West Ham, we did things in extremes in the games that straddled Christmas. Matches against the very top and the very bottom teams in the Prem have seen a surge of confidence and optimism amongst the fans based on 4 home points, three goals for and only one against, and the heady heights of finding ourselves fourth from bottom. Behrami is back, Cole should return soon, Franco made it into the starting 11 despite the rumours of a mystery injury, Kovac played out of his skin and scored, Jimenez won the penalty and delivered a delicious free kick for Kovac to head home, Parker is ubiquitous in every game, Diamanti is looking unique and everything is suddenly wonderful.
But reality, of course, is perched like a ravenous crow on the edge of our bedstead. The four points were based upon a defence that looked so much more assured because of the presence of Upson; if the rumours of his defection are true, then we are in big trouble unless an experienced centre back is sourced. Hull and Bolton, two of the teams below us, have games in hand, as do a number of clubs immediately above us. Wolves illustrate how a few good results can see you leap up the Prem, only to slump back down on the back of one defeat. Cole isn't fit yet and Franco, at 33, has to lead the line alone again on Monday. Tottenham are so flush with talent that they were able to rest Defoe ahead of our game on Monday, a luxury we can only dream of. Behrami looked sparkling for the 15 minutes that he was on but can we risk starting him at Spurs after two relapses already this season? We still have Faubert at right back!
The truth is, these two matches have kindled hope, nothing more. Had we lost both, the coffin lid would be in position, ready to be nailed down. Instead, we are sitting up in bed, in remission, looking at patients who look sicker than ourselves and feeling rather smug about having a 55% chance of survival. However, as great as confidence is, confidence is fickle. Some on here are already talking about a mid table finish, and with Sunderland in 10th, just 4 points ahead of us, that doesn't sound too absurd on the face of it. However, such talk is extremely dangerous. 'Arry and Defoe have sharp needles, desperate to burst our bubble of confidence and should Tottenham thump us, the optimists will turn doom mongers overnight. In a way, however, that game is irrelevant. The big matches are the return fixture with Portsmouth and the home game against Wolves. Four points from those two games would be very useful in helping us secure our Premiership status, which is our realistic target for this year.
Yes there is reason for hope after yesterday's result but only the sort of hope a cancer patient has when he hears that his cancer is in remission. To suddenly think he is going to live forever and return to smoking forty cancers a day would be stupid. There remains something rotten and far from benign in our accounts and, Portsmouth apart, we are likely to find ourselves weakened the most during the January sales. There is a long battle ahead before we can look forward to playing Premiership football next season so let's not get carried away.
We did look much improved in those last two games and lets hope the momentum can be maintained at Tottenham and then into January! But let's not let our dreams fly too high guys! Bubbles are pretty but bubbles burst as we very well know and as a certain Icelandic bank discovered not so long ago!
I agree HF, I have thought for most of the season, that there are deep rooted problems that need to be sorted out and these are for all to see,
ReplyDelete1.No right back
2.No cover up front
3.No cover at left back(but I hear that we have a good young swiss kid coming though)
4.A manager who is cutting his teeth.
5.Nothing but lies coming out from the board room.
6.And worst of all, the squad seem to have had enough & many dont want to be at the club anymore & the rest seem happy just to turn up and pick up there pay packets,
In my mind most are feed up with all of the bul**hit that is coming from the top.
Deep rooted problems indeed.
How can Duxbury sleep at night?... maybe, just maybe he has a spurs scarf hidden somewhere.
If I did not known better I would have thought that he was on a YTS scheme, with all of the school boy errors he seems to make.
Anyway, glad I got that of my chest.
Happy Xmas & Come on you Irons!
Good post HF and I'll second Dave Ds comments as well. But I think there are other even more deep rooted problems.
ReplyDeleteThere is a sort of short-termism built into football. Along with clichés like 'it's a game of two halves' and 'we'll be taking the positives away from today's 4 nil defeat', there is the assertion that football is played 'one game at a time'. By this reckoning 4 points from our last two games is seen as a corner having been turned. But West Ham's long term problems will not be dispelled so easily.
In fact West Ham's 'local' difficulties are football's 'global' problems — at its top end the game is determined and bankrolled by money men with little real commitment to football or the clubs they associate their capital with, and football's association with them leaves the game open to the vagaries of a free market economy that just can't guarantee the sort of long term stability that a football club needs and that fans desire.
Given a chance I think Zola could be a decent manager; Kovac and Jimenez might get up to speed with Premiership football; and young men like Hines and Sears might mature quite nicely. But the short-termism breed into the game by its utter dependency on the barons of neo-liberalism will bring clubs like West Ham nothing but grief and instability.
HF two good follow up comment from dave and Rabelais ...
ReplyDeleteMy thought still follow the relegation path ... as it stands CB Holdings need £120 to clear their books and the clubs debt, no one full stop is going to pay that ...
So sell off Parker, Upson, Green and Cole for approx £40 million ... Berahmi, Collison Tomkins and Noble for another lump and take the parachute payments means they can then sell the club in the fizzy pop league for around 50 to 60 million quid. there are some pluses to this ... we'll have no debt and can start again .. but we may also become a Leeds Charlton or a Southampton come Leicester if what is left is not good enough to survive ...
Have a drink guys! Take down those nooses, put the aspirins back in the medicine cabinet and don't slice your wrists quite yet! I am a natural pessimist but those last three comments take the biscuit! I'm not saying you are wrong but let's not get too depressed YET!
ReplyDeleteHF,
ReplyDeleteI live by the notion that nothing is ever so bad that it can't get worse. And ever cloud has a serrated edge (rather than a silver one).
Mrs Rab believes that it is decades of supporting West Ham that has rendered me so melancholy.
Top 10 by mid-Feb lads :)
ReplyDeleteLOL Rab, I know the feeling. Look out for the weather map on BBC - bright sunshine everywhere except for one single rain cloud on the whole map. That's where you will find me on that day! 40 plus years of supporting West Ham. It's like raining on St Swithens day!
ReplyDeleteStani, that's exactly what I was warning against! Bloody good news that Hull lost tonight!
Yeah HF, then it means you'll have to be nice doohoohahaha
ReplyDeleteDid you see Rooney's pass to Berby? Just pray nothing happens to him before S.A.
Lol, HF you are right I will not get too upset about our plight.
ReplyDeleteI think I will book my summer holidays.
Does anyone have XL Holidays phone number?
LOL Dave. The number is the same as West Ham's - just dial 999!
ReplyDeleteStani, it was delicious. Carlton on the end of it in the final, simple tap in and we've won the World Cup!
....I'll get his statue commissioned for Barking road.
ReplyDeleteThe old world cup got stolen didn't it? Did they ever find it?
Didn't Pickles the dog find it? It has been won twice outright since by Brazil. So, I think, we are on to the third World Cup now. But I may be talking out of my arse here!
ReplyDelete